Fighting War
by Twilightlovr12
Summary: When Tally first enters the New Smoke stationed in Diego the Specials book , she discovers that when the smokies captured fausto, it was no mistake. Can she escape the wardens and Smokies of the city? R&R please! Disclaimer: I do not own the Uglies serie
1. Chapter 1: Fire

**The New Smoke**

**Chapter 1: Fire**

_Then she saw it. After all the days she'd lived in the sneak suit, all the thrills and spills she'd put it through… finally, that one last leap from the Overlook had done it in. _

_On her right shoulder, the seam had split. It glowed almost white in infrared, the heat from her metabolism gushing out like sunlight._

_The figure slid closer through the air, slow and cautious._

"_Hey," she called nervously. "I think I've got something here."_

_What is it?" came the answer. _

_Tally recognized the answering voice. David, she thought, a little shiver going through her. So close to him, and Tally could hardly make a fist. _

_The Smokey girl paused, still staring right at Tally. "There's a hot spot in this tree. Baseball-size"_

_Laughter came from David's way, and someone else shouted, "Probably just a squirrel."_

"_Way too hot for a squirrel. Unless it's on fire."_

_Tally waited, squeezing her eyes closed and willing her body to slow down, to stop generating so much energy. But the Smokey girl had got it right: between the racing engine of her heart and the nanos busily repairing her shoulders, Tally felt like she was on fire. _

_She tried to move her left hank up to cover the rip, but the muscles would no longer respond. All she could do was stand there and try not to move._

_More glowing figures glided her way._ Tally could hear David calling for the Smokey who had spotter her:

"Jenna, throw a stick, will you? If it is her, I don't want to take any chances." They were getting closer.

Through her brown lashes Tally could see the Smokey called Jenna soar down to pick up a stick. Climbing back up in the air, she set her arm back and, aiming straight at eh tear in Tally's suit, her arm struck out.

Tally held her breath, waiting for the stick to reveal her position.

The Smokey evidently had a good arm, for when the twig struck it felt as if the fire had doubled. Tally couldn't help it—she gasped.

Immediately all the watching Smokeys surged forward. Her leg aimed a blow at one of the closest, knocking him off his hoverboard. She attempted to leap on. But, yet again, they had sheer numbers to overwhelm Tally, besides the fact that her arms felt as though the ceramic bones inside her arms had recently been shattered.

They grabbed her roughly, and she was finally forced onto a hoverboard with David. Maybe she could jump…

But as these plans began to form in her mind, one of the Smokeys clasped her hands and feet together with plastic cuffs.

Tally's shoulders screamed in protest. She _had_ to stay awake. They could inject her…

But the fresh torrents of fire rolling over her shoulders were too much—blackness, dark and serene, washed over her…

**Sorry about the short length, it seemed appropriate!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own any of the books in the Uglies series!**

**Please review. Thanks!**


	2. Chapter 2: David

Chapter 2

When she woke, David was standing over her, watching with cold blue eyes. She tried to lash out…he was so close…but her hands and ankles were securely clamped behind her back. It looked as if her sneak suit had been disabled. Tally noticed her shoulder hadn't repaired itself, so it must have been only a few minutes because it still hurt like hell. She pushed the pain to the back of her mind.

She could hear someone quietly sneaking up behind her. She was hauled to her feet and her arms were seized by Fausto and ____. She tried to struggle, but the plastic cuffs were too strong. She looked David in the eye.

"You're dead. You have no idea what I'm capable of, Smokey." The razors in her voice were even more noticeable than usual.

He met her gaze evenly, and pulled out an injector. Tally hissed threateningly.

"Tally, I should have given this to you by now. But we need you. You have to go and explain to Dr. Cable. Shay?" Shay stepped out from the trees where she had been hiding.

Tally glared at Shay. Her eyes were soft, watery… "Don't touch me."

"Tally, you have to listen to me. Her that?" she paused so that crashing and screaming was heard."Dr. Cable's attacked Diego. She's blaming them for breaking into the armoury (as if). We started a war. And if I explain, she won't listen to me…" she didn't need to say why.

Tally bit back a sharp retort. Instead she asked,

"Where are the Crims?"

An uncomfortable look crossed both their faces, and the Smokeys on her arms tensed.

"Zane's gone." It processed immediately, but it took seconds until Tally realized that it was reality. She needed to get away. From the Smokeys, from the new, soft Cutters, from reality. She looked up at them, eyes dead.

"I'm sorry." Shane whispered. But Tally didn't want pity. She wanted Zane.

"They had to move hum, Tally. He had a dangerous operation that backfired, and they needed the bed. The war is getting out of hand, and we need to stop it." Even though Tally didn't want to give in from the guilt talk, she also now understood.

"Fine." Her voice was flat, numb. In fact, her whole body seemed to be numb, even her shoulder had been reduced to a far away throbbing.

David nodded to the Cutters, and in seconds the plastic cuffs came off. They let go of her cautiously, as if Tally might decide to break for it.

But Tally's vision blurred and she swooned to one side, catching her fall on a tree trunk. It took her a moment to look up, and she gripped her arm tightly, knuckles white, bloodless.

David walked over to her cautiously, and pulled out a different injector. Tally thought it smelled different, so she let him push it into her arm. Immediately the pain receded and she felt her arm go numb. She still wouldn't be able to use it for another couple of hours, but at least the pain was gone. She nodded thanks to David.

He pulled out a hoverboard, one of the Special ones, and suddenly, unexpectedly, grinned at Tally, with a touch of bittersweetness.

"I believe this belongs to you. See you there." He took off on his own in the opposite direction of Dr. Cable. Shay looked questioningly at Tally.

"Shall we?"


	3. Chapter 3: The Ride

Chapter 3

Tally sped ahead of Shay, trying to leave it all behind. Her arm flapped uselessly at her side, but she ignored it.

The cold wind whipping seemingly through her entire being, the finality of leaving Diego behind, seeing David's bitter, hard eyes, and even Shay forgiving her. Nothing. Those events all blended into nothingness next to the blunt reality that now faced her:

Zane was dead. And she had killed him.

Shane soared close behind Tally, making sure to keep her distance while still keeping one eye out for anything that might happen. Because something always happened, even when it all seemed resolved. So she let Tally sulk, as she always seemed to be doing. Shay could understand why she was upset, but she wasn't the only one with problems. It wasn't fair that Tally problems seemed to consume everyone else's like a bitter black hole.

She stifled a dark chuckle. Was life really fair? Really? Shay didn't think so.

And it was true: Tally did, at this moment, feel like her own personal black hole.

_Shay had promised. SHAY HAD PROMISED they would find a way to make Zane a cutter! _But he had died trying to do just that. The wind stung her eyes, and Tally thought that if she wasn't speeding fast through the dry forest, she would have been able to feel wetness there.

**

By the next morning, both Tally and Shay were stifled with the urge to sleep. But Tally, at least, was glad, because it took her mind off of Zane, forcing her to focus all her concentration on staying on the board.

Shay knew it was madness to travel in this condition, and so did Tally. But Shay was first to suck it up and say they should stop first. After all, this was the _new and degraded_ Shay.

"Um, Tally," She began hesitantly, but received no sharp answer through the whistling wind. So she went on, knowing that Tally's cutter hearing would be able to pick up the words she uttered.

"Tally, we need to rest." The response was not immediate, as it should have been with Tally's razor instincts, but, gradually, Tally complied, reluctantly giving up the sharp jerk of the wind to the soft hum of awaking creatures.

But to her, each one of them sounded harsh to her enhanced hearing.

Mechanically, Tally rolled out her sleeping bag, which Shay had supplied, and lay down next to her former friend.

Shay's breathing leveled out immediately, but Tally didn't close her eyes once all night, except to refuse the hot wetness building up behind her eyes.


End file.
